What is a Gartner® Magic Quadrant™?
The Gartner®Magic Quadrant™ for Intranet Packaged Solutions is the first Magic Quadrant for the category. Defined by Gartner, an Intranet Packaged Solutions (IPS) is “a software product that organizations use to create and deploy a website or network of websites, portals, hubs, mobile apps and other digital experiences supporting business-to-employee needs”. Gartner states that “leaders execute well against their current vision and are well positioned for tomorrow”, so as a Leader we believe Staffbase’s strategy reflects the market and is implemented well.
“We believe that being recognized as a Leader in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Intranet Packaged Solutions represents a major shift in this technology category,” says Martin Böhringer, Founder and CEO at Staffbase. "Our intranet solution is fundamentally different. We are hyper-focused on enabling customers to own their story and inspire employees through fantastic communication. Our platform presents a clarity of purpose that drives powerful, engaging, relevant experience the intranet market has never seen before. This approach has long been validated by our customers and we are incredibly proud of this new recognition from Gartner that shows the rules of traditional intranets being rewritten.”
Leading the way with a new type of intranet
Staffbase launched our employee communications-focused intranet solution in 2018 and has been quickly put on the map as the fastest growing vendor in the intranet space. Unlike traditional portal intranets that focus on providing a document library and a place for teams to collaborate, Staffbase puts communications front and center. This means our platform covers the entire communications workflow, with a combination of owned channels and employee touchpoints, that allows organizations to reach all employees and own their story.
In recent years, we’ve seen an unprecedented shift in customer demand that we believe is also mirrored by the findings in the latest Magic Quadrant report. In this post-pandemic world with major demographic shifts, the demand for transactional employer-employee relationships is on the decline. Employees today expect meaning — they expect to be inspired.
So rather than looking at traditional intranet vendors that evolved from on-premise roots with a heavy focus on employee productivity, organizations are now seeking intranets built for the purpose of leading in this new age.
The future of intranets is multichannel
The days of traditional intranets are over. Employees no longer want a destination intranet that is a cluttered digital dump, they want an intranet with a clear purpose that meets them where they are. We see this shift in our customers, they need a way to break through the noise and surface content when and where employees want. With Staffbase’s integrated multichannel communication approach, organizations can reach all of their employees no matter if they’re located in an office or on the frontline. It also allows admins to plan, create, and measure all from one central platform. This means you only have to create content once and can push it out to multiple channels, saving time and increasing visibility.
Staffbase’s multichannel communication approach improves the experience for employees because it stays consistent, no matter if they are starting to read an article on their desktop and finish it on their mobile device. By giving employees access to content and news in their preferred channels, organizations can amplify their messages and develop an all-around experience.
The key to unlocking engagement: A strong mobile offering
Staffbase started in the Employee Communications Application space in 2014 with an employee app. As a vendor that developed from a mobile app we have mastery of the channel which influenced how we created the Staffbase Intranet, providing employees with a simple, intuitive experience on either device.
In today’s hyper-digital world where employees are further away from HQs than ever before, organizations need a way to engage their employees and bridge the gap between office and frontline workers. With Staffbase’s mobile offering, companies can create a fully-branded app that is personalized to their employees. Not only can employees access news and content but also self-services, which provides them with information they want and things they need, to drive engagement. Branded push notifications ensure organizations reach employees faster with urgent news. An intuitive UX allows employees to use all functions of the intranet on mobile, like accessing a department page or starting a chat with a colleague. Staffbase seeks to put your company in employees' pockets.
A Microsoft strategy that complements your digital workplace
As a communications focused-intranet, Staffbase focuses on core use cases like engagement and has a deep integration strategy with Microsoft. If your employees are in SharePoint, Teams, Outlook, or on the go, Staffbase provides one platform and one publishing process for intranet administrators. Staffbase’s Microsoft integrations go both ways — reach employees with company news while they’re in SharePoint, Teams, or Viva, and give them points to jump back into Microsoft 365 from the Staffbase Intranet.
Staffbase’s Microsoft integrations work with:
- SharePoint: Personalized news, notifications, and subscriptions
- Teams: Intranet newsfeed directly in Teams
- Viva: Show Staffbase news directly in Viva Connections
By using Staffbase for communications and engagement and integrating with Microsoft for productivity use cases, organizations use the two in complementary ways which provides high value in the digital workplace. This is something we see in many of our customers, as over 90% of Staffbase customers use Staffbase with Microsoft 365.
The intranet market: A bird's-eye view
The intranet market is backed by companies needing a way to engage their workforce and improve the employee experience. Instead of using intranets solely as a personal productivity tool, they must provide employees with a way to get the information they need and connect with their organization. Gartner mentions a number of trends influencing the intranet market:
Gartner references the increasing support for frontline workers. Gartner states “they comprise up to 80% of the worldwide workforce, and they have largely been left out of the digital employee experience” but are a vital part of organizations. Staffbase originated from the Employee App space and has a strong mobile offering that ensures all employees, especially those on the frontline, have the information and tools they need. Staffbase understands that deskless employees are different and they need more than just a news feed app, they need the ability to access self-services, high personalization, and ease of use.
Additionally, GenAI is a huge trend in all of technology right now, including the intranet market. Vendors are racing to incorporate AI both in simple and complex ways. Staffbase has also dove into this trend but with specific guiding principles for AI to help build augmented experiences that users will actually enjoy. The goal is that both admins and end-users can leverage AI to make their daily work easier in a secure way. Staffbase Companion Editor and Search, which is enterprise-ready AI hosted securely on Microsoft Azure, builds best practices for communication and engagement into AI. Editors can benefit from the ability to power up their comms with actions like a quick fix for writer’s blocks or creating jazzier titles and teasers. Whereas Companion Search is a conversational chatbot for employees, so they can find exactly what they are looking for by getting specific information and content straight from their intranet. As GenAI continues to influence the market, Staffbase will use its principles to guide further developments.
Overview of Gartner Critical Capabilities
Along with the Magic Quadrant, Gartner creates a report on Critical Capabilities that provide additional insights into how vendors perform on certain use cases based on their product capabilities. By looking at the two reports collectively, we believe you can get a deeper understanding into how a vendor helps satisfy common usage scenarios. Gartner has a requirement that a vendor must be able to satisfy three of the use cases mentioned above. The use cases for intranets include:
- Employee communications and engagement
- Employee services
- Application portals
- Knowledge services
- Work management
- Frontline worker support
Hear firsthand from our customers
Interested in what Staffbase customers have to say about our intranet? Take a look at our profile on Gartner Peer Insights, where we have reviews from customers across different roles and industries.
Gartner, Magic Quadrant for Intranet Packaged Solutions, Jim Murphy, Mike Gotta, Priyanka Singh, Gavin Tay, Max Goss, 27 December 2023.
Gartner, Critical Capabilities for Intranet Packaged Solutions, Jim Murphy, Mike Gotta, Priyanka Singh, Gavin Tay, Max Goss, 27 December 2023.
https://www.gartner.com/en/research/methodologies/magic-quadrants-research
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